Little brothers don't get shot
by seektheinfinite
Summary: Evan gets shot and Hank doesn't know what to do.


'Hank?!'

'Hmm...' Hank replied non-comittally, not even bothering to look up from his paperwork.

'Hank, I need... Evan stopped mid-sentence but this time it was enough to get his older brothers attention. Hank looked up from his paperwork, his notes abandoned mid sentence.

Evan was leaning heavily on the back of the dining room chair, his face was deathly pale with a thin sheen of sweat beading his brow. Most notable, and alarming of all was the large blood stain currently spreading across the front of his shirt.

'Evan, what happened?' Hank didn't wait for a reply, he was already half way around the table reaching for his medical bag.

'I think I got shot', he attempted a smile that quickly turned into a grimace, knuckles whitening as he tightened his grip on the back of the chair, a spasm of pain running through his body.

'Okay Ev, okay. Everythings going to be okay.' Hank gripped him by the elbow, before swinging his arm over his shoulder, taking his younger brother weight as he gently guided him over to the couch. 'Okay, let's get you down here and then I can take a look. Hang in there Ev, it's going to be fine.'

He wasn't sure whether he was trying to convince Evan or himself of that fact, the point was nothing was alright. His little brother, the one he was supposed to protect was lying in front of him with a gunshot wound of all things. But his feelings would have to wait, Evan needed him now; needed Doctor Hank, not brother Hank.

'Hank, am I going to die?' Evans voice was way too small, no trace of the bounciness that always tinged their conversations.

'What? No, of course not.'

'Well either you're lying to me or you really need to work on your bedside manner because it's written all over your face. I know you have a great bedside manner, so that must mean you're lying to me.' Evan chuckled, before being abruptly cut off by a sharp stabbing pain in his chest.

'Evan, I...just let me have a look okay, and we can debate my faults later.' Hank was alarmed when there was no answer from his younger brother. 'Evan, talk to me.'

'Can't breath.'

'Okay Ev, you're panicking, just try to calm down.' Even whilst hyperventilating with blood running down his chest Evan still managed to give Hank a look of pure disbelief. Seeing as Evan was struggling to breath Hank would just have to imagine the snarky comments that would usually have followed such a look. _Sure, relax. Nothing to worry about here, just a small GUNSHOT wound. I know you've seen it all Hank, and this is probably just a minor injury to you, but this is a first for me and I think I'm perfectly justified in being freaked out right now. _Yeah, he hadn't been spending too much time with his brother or anything.

'Deep breaths okay, just in through your nose, out through your mouth. Try to slow your breathing down. I'm just going to take you shirt off soI can get a look okay.'

Evan attemped to sit forward from his currently slumped position with his head resting on the arm of the couch. Hank pushed him back down with a gentle, but firm hand.

'Don't move okay. I need to find out if the bullet is still in there, the stiller you can be for now the better. Just let me do all the work. I know, I know, you thought you'd never see the day, me telling you to do nothing whilst I do all the work.' Hank could just see the cogs working in his brothers brain, even if his mouth wasn't quite co-ordinating with it right now.

Hank pulled Evan's shirt open revealing a small bullet hole on the right side of his chest. He found himself breathing a deep sigh of relief as he realised that from the entry wound he could be pretty certain the bullet had missed any of the major organs.

The next step was to check for an exit point, if the bullet had gone straight through it would certainly make life easier, if it was still in Evan's body well, he'd just have to think about that when, and if it came to it. Hank glanced briefly towards his brother, whos breathing had slowed but not in a good way. It was too slow, and Evan was no longer looking at him with panicked eyes, he wasn't looking at him at all.

'Evan?' When there was no reply Hank abandoned his ministrations to the chest, and gently tapped Evan's cheek. 'Evan, stay with me.'

'Hmm, wha..M'okay.' Evan cracked his eyes open just enough to acknowledge Hank before they were sliding closed again.

'Dammit it Evan, can't you just for once do what I ask you to?' Hank didn't expect a reply, but it made him feel better to keep talking. He knew Evan was in a bad way, he was still bleeding, way too much blood. He had to do something, but what? If this had been anyone else he would have been five steps ahead by now, he'd have a plan. But this wasn't just anyone, this was Evan, his little brother. He was used to knee scrapes, the occasional bang on the head, those were all normal, and perfectly acceptable in the realms of brotherhood. He wasn't prepared for this, this was the Hamptons for goodness sake, who gets shot in the Hamptons?

'Hank? Evan?' Divya entered through the back door, the first thing that she saw was the pool of blood on the floor by the dining table. Nothing unusual there, this was a doctors office, if an unconventional one. It was the next thing that she saw that made her heart race a little faster. Evan was lying on the couch, bleeding from somewhere and Hank was, well Hank was just sitting there, doing nothing. Oh God, please don't let mean...Evan couldn't be dead.

Divya dropped her bag before running over to the two brothers. 'Hank, what happened?'

'He...Um...I don't...Evan got shot...'

Divya waited for Hank to continue, she was expecting to hear the details of the injury and what he was doing to fix it, but there was nothing. Hank was not being Hank at all. She guessed it was up to her right now.

'Okay, Evan, can you hear me?' Divya gently took Evans wrist in between her thumb and forefinger, the first thing she needed to know was whether he had a pulse. 'Okay good, he's got a pulse but it's very shallow. Hank, I need you to focus right now, I need your help.'

When there was no response from Hank who was still sat staring at his younger brother, Divya decided that there was only one thing to do. She slapped him. 'Henry Lawson, this is your brother, the one that you swore you would never let anything happen to. He is in pain, and he needs his big brother right now. If we have any chance of saving his life I need you to focus, you can freak out later okay.'

Hank was too shocked to say anything about the slap but Divya's actions had the desired effect. 'Okay, you're right. I'm sorry. What do you need?'

'I need to know what happened before I got here?' Divya continued to check Evan over, she needed to find the source of the bleeding, it was clearly coming from his chest but there was just so much blood she was having a hard time finding the wound.

'He was shot. He just came in, and said he was shot. I don't know what happened. From the placement of the wound it looks as though he's managed to avoid any major organs but I haven't checked to see if the bullet is still in there yet.'

'Have you called an ambulance?' If this had been any other patient calling an ambulance would have been the first thing that Hank would have done, but then this was not an ordinary patient, and so far Divya could see that Hank hadn't done any of the things that he usually would have done by now.

'Ambulance?' Confusion flashed across Hank's face for a fleeting moment before the reality of the situation registered with him. 'No, oh God, I was so focused on Evan that I didn't even think to call an ambulance.'

'Okay, well you do that and I'll check and see whether there's an exit wound okay?' Divya was aware that she was speaking slowly, as though to a child. On any other occasion she would have been embarresed about talking to her friend in such a way but it was obvious that Hank was in shock, and this was the only way to get through to him.

'Okay, Ambulance.' Hank jumped up from his position on the floor and made his way to the table where he had abandoned his phone, along with his paperwork when he had seen Evan covered in blood. Oh god, Evan covered in blood that was an image that was going to haunt him forever. Not that he could think about that right now, Evan needed him, he needed to be strong right now; he could freak out and fall apart later once Evan was safely in the hospital.

'Okay Evan, this is going to hurt okay but I need to turn you over onto your side to get a look at the wound. I need to know if the bullet came out the other side or if it's still inside you, okay?' Divya waited for a second to see if there was going to any response, when none came she gently lifted Evan onto his side. There was a slight murmur of pain at that but nothing more, and Divya had to admit that she was worried. Evan had lost a lot of blood and this really was not looking good.

There was so much blood soaking through white shirt that it was almost impossible to tell where it was coming from, whether it was all from the front wound or if, as she hoped the bullet had in fact come out the other side. She ran her right hand over Evans back feeling anywhere for a wound, when she realised there was none she cursed inwardly.

With the bullet still in there Evan was definitely going to require surgery, the best that she could do for him now was apply pressure to the wound and try to get some fluids into him. She knew that they had saline in the medical supplies drawers in the office, that was one thing she could say for Evan he always made sure that they had more than enough supplies.

'Ambulance is on its way, it should be here in five. What can I do?'

'I need gauze and saline. We need to keep the pressure on this wound and we need to try and replace some of this blood that he's lost. The bullet hasn't exited so it's still in there somewhere, he's going to need surgery. So the best we can do for now is try and stop this bleeding until the ambulance gets here.'

Hank was already at the supply cabinet by the time she had finished talking. 'I was hoping that the bullet would have exited, but of course this is Evan, getting shot isn't good enough, he has to make it complicated. Here, can you.' He handed her the saline, the drip attachment already set up, before showing her his hands which were shaking by way of explanation as to why he was not going to try and do it. The last thing Evan needed was a botched IV.

'Sure.' Divya smiled, offering Hank what she hoped was reassurance. 'If you can apply pressure to the wound.'

'Done.' Hank and Divya switched places and set about their tasks in silence, now it was just a matter of waiting for the ambulance to arrive.


End file.
